Bowling-alley



(No Model.)

W. H. WIGGINS. BOWLING ALLEY. No. 552,801. Patented Jan. 7, 1896 W Want eaves."-

ANDREW EGRANAM. PNOTOUWQWASMNHUN. DCv

UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM II. IVIGGINS, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE BRUNSlVICK-BALKE-COLLENDER COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

BOWLING-ALLEY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 552,801, dated January 7, 1896.

Application filed September. 12, 1895. Serial No.,562,242. (N model.) 7

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. WIGGINS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bowling-Alleys, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to what are known as sectional bowling-alleys and to that species thereof in which the hallway is composed of a series of steel plates arranged on and securely fastened to a series of metallic crossbeams, which are adj ustably supported by a suitable foundation. Previous to my invention this species of alley has been made with the plate-sustaining beams mounted in metallic stands and rendered vertically adjustable at their ends by means of wedges, or

- tapering keys and set-screws, as shown, for

instance, in United States, Patent No. 525,172, granted August 28,1894, to myself and '1. H. Vanderhoef. This species of alley has also been made with the beams rendered adj ustable at their ends by means of levers, fulcrumed in the saic metallic stands and having combined with them lifting-posts at their inner ends, and jack-screws at their outer ends, as shown and described in United States Patent No, 540,038, granted to me May 28, 1895. In all the constructions heretofore devised, however, either the adjusting devices are not conveniently accessible, as in the case of Patent No. 525,172, or the mechanism for adjusting separately the ends of the cross beams is unnecessarily complex and expenslve.

I propose by my present improvement to provide for use a hallway for that species of alley above mentioned, in which by means exceedingly simple,-durable, and efficient the ends of the plate-sustaining beams will be firmly supported and may be easily adjusted to put and maintain the metallic hallway in a level condition, and to these main ends and objects my invention may he said to consist in the novel construction or combination of devices which I will hereinafter describe and that will be found most particularly pointed out in the claim of this specification.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use my improved alley I will now proceed to more fully describe it, referring by letters to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification, and in which I have shown my invention carried into effect precisely as I have so far practiced it. In the drawings, Figure 1 is a top view of so much of an alley as is necessary to be shown in order to illustrate my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-section at the line w of Fig. 1, but drawn on a larger scale. Fig. 3 is a detail vertical longitudinal section at the line 3 y of Fig. 1, same scale as Fig. 2. Fig. i is a detail vertical longitudinal section at the line 2 z of Fig. 1, same scale as Fig. 2. In the several figures the same part will be found always designated by the same letter of reference.

The hallway A is composed, as shown, of a series of steel plates, which are nicely fitted together with butt joints at their ends and that rest upon and are securely fastened to a series of metallic cross-beams B. The said plates, which in an alley of the full or stanch ard dimensions are of course each three and a half feet wide, are made preferably each five and a half feet long, so that just twelve plates are required for the hallway, the extreme length of which is sixty-six feet. In practice, so far, I have had these plates made three-eighths of an inch thick finished, and they are fastened at their meeting ends to the cross-beams B by a series or set of stovebolts 0, (three, more or less, to each plate end,) the heads of which are let into or countersunk in the plate and the lower threaded ends of which are provided with nuts, all as most clearly seen at Fig. 3 of the drawings.

Besides the sustaining-beams located beneath the ends of the plates, similar beams B are arranged beneath and sustain the middle portions of the plates, as clearly illustrated at Fig. 1, and while I have found the number of beams shown to be fully sufficient to firmly and durahly sustain the hallway A a greater number may, of course, be employed should it be deemed desirable. The beams 13, which are of peculiar construction, are

preferably all alike, and hence a description of one will answer for the whole set.

The beam B is T-shaped in cross-section, (see Fig. 2,) its top plate or horizontal member m serving to aiford a sufficient or proper bearing-surface for the plate of the hallway, while its vertical plate-like portion or member 71 lends great strength to the beam in the direction of any vertical strain to which it may be subjected. In practice I have so far made this beam with its top member about three inches wide and three-eighths (scant) thick and with its vertical member about one inch and five-eighths deep and of the same thickness as the other part; but these dimensions may of course be varied, as circumstances may require.

As clearly shown, (see Fig. 2,) the top member of the beam is bent down (at each end) into a vertical position and then outwardly into a horizontal position, and this shape is given to the beam ends preferably by the following method of making the beam, viz: The stock is first rolled in the form of a T-beam, straight throughout its entire length. Then so much of the vertical member is cut awayor removed at each end that when the severed portion of the top member shall be bent into the shape seen the bottom surface of the horizontal part of the bent portion will be in a plane coincident with that of the bottom of the vertical member of the beam, and the said horizontal part of the bent portion will be about two and one-quarter inches long, while the extreme length of the topmost part of the beam will be three feet and a half, or exactly equal to the width of the hallwayplate. To the under surface of the saidhorizontal part of the bent portion of the beam, which I have lettered a, is secured (by riveting or otherwise) a rectangular plate 1) equal in width to the part a and a little longer than said part, and through the parts a and Z2 is bored and tapped a hole for the accommodation of a set-screw or jack-screw I, the operation and effect of which will be presently explained.

I may here remark that the function or purpose of the part b is merely to render the threaded hole long enough to form a serviceable nut for the jack-screw I.

G are bearer-plates on which the lower ends of the screws I bear or are stepped, and which being placed on some suitable foundational surface afiord solid resting places for the lower (slightly rounded) ends of the said screws, which latter in. practice are about three-quarters of an inch in diameter.

At each side of the ballway is formed the usual gutter to guide or conduct to the lower or pit end of the alley balls which may be rolled off the sides of the hallway A. These gutters are made and arranged about as usual, a narrow strip or fillet of wood h being ar ranged in contact with and making a finish to the vertical edge of the ballway, while a similar strip g is nailed along the opposite manent foundation.

edge of the gutterboardf and to a stringer a or other wall-like surface; but as the bottom board or floor f of the gutter covers over the heads of the set-screws I said floor has a hole 5 bored through it in vertical line with each screw-head, so that a wrench or key may be inserted through such hole to operate said adjusting-screw (see Figs. 1 and 4) when occasion requires. These holes are in practice only about an inch in diameter, and to close them up so as to exclude dirt, and for appearance sake, I provide each with a small sheetmctal cover-plate t that in the case shown is pivoted by a little wood screw to the bottom board or floor f of the gutter.

The ballway supporting-plates G, it will be understood, rest upon any suitable per In the case shown they are supposed to rest on a solid foundation of concrete; but instead they may be placed upon supporting-beams or stringers of either wood or iron, or upon foundation piers, all depending upon where the bowling-alley is located.

In putting up the hallway shown, the plates G being on a suitably permanent foundation surface of some sort, and approximately in a horizontal plane, or all on a level, the entire set or series of cross-beams B (twentyfive in the case shown) with the steel plates carried by them will be supported by said plates G through the inertia of fifty jackscrews I stepped thereon and screwed into the foot pieces or portions of said beams, as shown, and by adjusting separately these screws I, as the exigencies of the case require, the entire ballways upper surface may be perfectly leveled in the finishing up of the alley, and thereafter, as occasion may require, any one or more of said screws may be manipulated by a key, the little plate-like cover 25 of any hole through which it maybe necessary to insert the key having first been swung to one side.

In setting up the hallway (where it happens to be as close to a continuous foundation surface as is illustrated in the drawings) a notched bar may be used, placed beneath each beam B, so as to hold in place the nuts, partially turned onto the bolts 0, while the latter are turned by a screwdriver applied to their nicked heads, as the steel plates are put in place and fastened, or any expedient way be adopted which may be most convenient in doing the work of setting up.

To render the hallway as noiseless as practicable I pack the space between the foundation surface of the alley and the under surface of the steel plates A with sawdust, but some other means for deadening the sound or rendering the hallway comparatively noiseless may be adopted.

It will be seen that by making the beams B as shown, and combining the jack-screws I directly with the lowered laterally-projecting end portions of said beams, the result is a construction which, while exceedingly simple,

strong, durable, and cheap, permits easy access to the adjusting devices of the ballway, so that without any disruption of any part of the finished alley the sectional metallic ballway thereof can at all times be perfectly adj usted to compensate for any slight getting out of level of the foundational surface, or any derangement of any of the supporting devices operating to throw the ballway out of level.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In a sectional bowling alley, the combination with the series of ball-way plates; of a 

